PPC Bid Optimization Without Conversion Tracking

Lesson 1 of running a PPC campaign: track your conversions. A simple rule that we all try to stick to. But sometimes we can't.
Not all campaigns work so easily. It may be that conversions are too few and far between to make a difference. The website may convert everything over the phone through a system to complex/entrenched to track back to keyword level.
Whatever the reason, there are two techniques you can use to help get your PPC account delivering more value, even if you can't track it.

Option 1: Engagement Metrics

This one is hopefully going to seem like an obvious first step to most of you. If you have Google Analytics linked to your AdWords account, then you can create "engagement goals" and import them into AdWords as a conversion.

Engagement goals consist of tracking visitors who meet a threshold time on site or pages visited. In the screenshot above you can see how a goal would be set up to create a pages visited requirement of greater than 1. Doing this would let you see a goal in AdWords for any visits that did not bounce.
Based on the type of website you're running you really need to think carefully about which metric (time on site or pages visited) is going to be more useful for you, and what your requirement is going to be to log it as a conversion in AdWords.
Remember! Google Analytics does not track the time the user spent on the final page of their visit. If the user read that page for a long period then left the site, you won't see how long they spent on that final page. This can make time on site a slightly misleading metric for websites where visitors won't view many pages.
If you want to log pages per visit, then decide what kind of visitors qualify as "engaged" enough to be worth logging. You will find that many visitors will either bounce, or look at everything on the site. Averages suck. Your averages are being skewed by bounces and by visits with many many pages viewed, so don't base your assessment on logging visitors who visit more pages than your site average.
Visiting more than one page (i.e., not a bounce) can be a good signal. If it takes at least two clicks to reach a product page or view a price, then your ideal threshold may be greater than two pages viewed.

Option 2: Relative Weighting

For some sites you can't even accurately track the above behavior. One page visits might still be worth a lot to an information or blog site. You may have organizational reasons that you can't use Google Analytics or other web analysis packages.
You need to be more creative in these situations.
Step 1

Take your top 20 keywords by traffic. In most cases these will account for the majority of your total clicks, but if not then take 30, or 40. Don't take too many at this stage, or you're making a lot of extra work for yourself for not too much value. Exclude any of your brand keywords from this list.
Step 2
Rank these keywords by a "likelihood of conversion" factor. You need to know your business really well here, but you have to put your keywords into order sorted by how relevant and targeted they are. A particular keyword might suggest that everybody searching for it is looking for exactly your product. Alternatively it might have other meanings or be more generic. Rank these keywords by their "awesomeness" factor.
Step 3

Give each of these keywords a score from 1 to 10 for relevance. The best and highest should be 9 or 10 (this won't always be the case, if none of your best keywords are in your top 20 by traffic) and work from there. Don't feel like you need to go all the way down to 1. If the lowest keywords have maybe half the likelihood of conversion of the highest keywords, then respective scores of 5 and 10 would be appropriate.
Step 4

Add a column to your list that indicates the potential value of a conversion. This is only really necessary if different keywords imply a different value (e.g., they might be searches for a different product). If your website sells just one service, or value is not related to search term at all, skip this step and just add "1" to this column next to every keyword.
Step 5

Multiply these scores together for each keyword, and divide each one by the total sum of all scores added together. What you have now is an estimate for what proportion of your budget you should be spending on each keyword.
Remember that these keywords didn't make up your total spend. If the top 20 keywords spent 80 percent of your budget, then these proportions you've found are proportions of the 80 percent.

Deciding the Bids

You should now have each of your top 20 keywords with a score from 0 to 1 representing the proportion of your spend that should be going to this keyword. Achieving this takes some time. You're going to need to analyze your spend levels on a daily basis, and make changes accordingly.
Each day, download the keyword data for the previous day from the account. For each keyword in your list, work out how much it spent (proportionally) compared to your target. If the keyword's spend is too high, reduce the bid by 10 percent. If it is too low, increase the bid by 10 percent. Set a sensible level of tolerance on this, or you'll be changing your bids even if your keywords are reeeeeeally close to perfect.
The process that will occur is this: every day each keyword that is spending too much will have its bid reduced a little. If the next day it is spending correctly, then you'll stop making that change to that keyword and it's nicely on target. If it still hasn't reached target then the process will happen again.

The Inevitable Complication

You're working from assumptions based on gut instinct and guesswork. These aren't accurate and they never will be.
Don't go crazy looking to make each keyword fit your target perfectly, since your target is an educated guess at best. The process outlined above will give you a bidding strategy to meet your target but it doesn't validate it if you were wrong.
The second issue to be aware of is that every time you change your bids, the proportion of budget spent by each keyword will change. But it will affect the proportion spent by all your other keywords too.
If we imagine a situation with two keywords, "keyword a" and "keyword b". "Keyword a" spends $10 per day and "keyword b" spends $20 per day. If I conduct this analysis and increase the bids on "keyword a" so that it spends $20 per day, then "keyword b" is now spending a lower proportion of my new, higher budget. And if my budget is limited, then I may need to reduce "keyword b" to compensate.
Each action on a keyword affects the proportional spend on the others. Don't be surprised if your keywords overreact.

In Summary

Having a lack of good conversion data is no excuse for not optimizing bids in a campaign. The campaign can still perform better and deep down you know it!
The two methods in this article will give you some pointers to go about pushing your spend towards your best converters and most profitable keywords, but your overall budget must still be determined by the profitability of PPC as a whole.
Re-assess your assumptions regularly. Don't take your first best guess as fixed. Make changes and improvements over time as your knowledge grows and you can keep making the campaign better and better.
By: Alistair Dent

9 Not-So-Great Points About Adwords Sitelinks

In September, I shared 11 great points about Google AdWords Sitelinks. As with all PPC features, there are a few cons to go along with the pros. My PPC colleagues on Twitter were quick to share the not-so-great aspects of sitelinks. Here’s the list.

1. Conversion Tracking is Painful

If you use the free AdWords conversion tracking, forget about seeing conversion data for sitelinks. It isn’t there. You’ll have to track conversions via your web analytics software. Even then, third-party conversion tracking is glitchy. This is probably the biggest con of using sitelinks – it’s quite difficult to tell if they’re actually converting.

2. No Click Data for Individual Destination URLs

Along the same lines, Google doesn’t display data for each individual sitelink. Instead, data is summarized by campaign – making it impossible to optimize for the best-performing sitelinks using AdWords data alone.
Again, you’ll need to set up tagging in your web analytics program to be able to tell which sitelink is driving traffic to your site. However, bear in mind that you won’t get impression data from your web analytics tool, so it’ll be impossible to figure out what your click-through rate is. This is yet another huge hole in the sitelinks reporting picture.

3. Sitelinks Are Only Available at the Campaign Level

Sitelinks will display for all ads in a campaign that qualify for the top-of-page spot. Therefore, it’s necessary to make sure your sitelinks are relevant to all ads in a campaign. Several of my Twitter colleagues expressed the desire to set up sitelinks at the ad group level, which makes a lot of sense.

4. Relevance can be a Problem

This issue is related to the campaign-only issue above: unless your PPC campaigns are tightly themed, your sitelinks may not be relevant to every ad in your campaign. So if you’re planning to use sitelinks, make sure you keep them generic enough to be relevant to all the searches.

5. Sitelinks can’t be Paused – They can Only be Deleted

This is yet another huge failing of sitelinks. Let’s say you’re an ecommerce advertiser who’s using sitelinks to promote specific products. Let’s also say that one of these products is temporarily out of stock. The logical thing to do would be to pause that sitelink until the product is in stock again. No can do.
You’ll have to either leave the sitelink active, thereby killing your cost per conversion and irritating customers who want to buy the out-of-stock item; or you’ll have to delete the sitelink and re-create it when the product is back in stock. Why can’t we just have a pause option instead?

6. Sitelinks can’t be Tested

Unlike ad copy, there is no A/B rotation of sitelinks – you have to craft the copy and hope for the best. In fact, this is kind of a double whammy because data for individual sitelinks isn’t available in AdWords, you’re really winging it here (unless you have tracking set up in your web analytics program). This omission is particularly puzzling to me, because AdWords offers so many other testing options – why not for sitelinks?

7. Sitelinks Trump Other Extensions

If your campaign includes not only sitelinks, but location or product extensions, sitelinks will trump the other extensions. This means you’ll need to think carefully about which extensions are going to add the most value to your campaign’s performance – and remember, you won’t get granular data from AdWords, so you’ll have to guess carefully.

8. Sitelinks can Distract From Ad Copy

One of the great things about sitelinks is their visibility – and it’s one of the not-so-great things about sitelinks, too. If your ad copy includes a special offer or other unique selling proposition, you’ll probably want to include it in your sitelinks too, or else the offer may not be noticed.
Again, remember sitelinks show at the campaign level, so that offer needs to apply to all ad groups in your campaign. Is your head spinning yet?

9. Sitelink Performance May Vary

Several of my Twitter colleagues said they’ve seen huge jumps in click-through rate as a result of implementing sitelinks – but that sitelinks also brought an influx of non-converting queries. I’ve seen this in our client campaigns as well – in some instances, we saw a huge increase in cost per conversion after implementing sitelinks. With limited tracking and no testing, this is a big concern.
While sitelinks can be a powerful addition to your PPC campaigns, it’s clear that there are several factors to consider before implementing them.
By: Melissa Mackey

PPC Ad Optimization: This Week, Don’t Diss the Tweak!

When it comes to PPC ad copy optimization, there are generally two schools with few practitioners working both approaches.

1. Fresh Approachers: The school of wholesale rewrites and the testing of new approaches, alternate messaging, and creative ad copy.
2. Tweakers: The school of one-variable-at-a-time, refining what’s already proven to work, and making small tweaks to language.

But the good news is that you don’t have to be an exclusive subscriber to either. Enough writing and testing will show you that optimal improvement requires both approaches, though I often find a fair amount of resistance to the worth of the tweak. It’s almost as if some clients feel that small changes can only produce small results, or that it isn’t worth paying for merely “tweaked” ad copy. (Stop nodding, your neck will hurt!)
So this week, I want you to look those tweak-haters in the eyes and say:
First, it’s psychological change in the prospect, not the physical change in the ad, that’s important to results.
The question in evaluating an ad tweak is not, “how many words or phrases has the writer changed?” but “how much does the new ad improve or alter that ad’s meaning and persuasive power within the mind of the searcher?”
For example, the difference between, say, “Put money in your pocket” and “Puts money in your pocket” in terms of a headline for a metal detector, isn’t the difference of one measly letter, but the difference between an invitation for an opportunity to do some work, and a gadget that’ll seemingly do the work for you (at least on a connotative level).
Physically it’s one letter; psychologically, it’s a much bigger difference than that!
Second, if you’re not testing both fresh approaches and tweaks, you’re probably testing great approaches with inferior wordsmithing.
In other words, what’s to keep from your testing a bad execution of an optimal approach, but passing it over for a better execution of an inferior approach? Nothing! Because you’re never tweaking the execution to find out.
So if you’re not testing tweaks, it’s very likely that you’re not getting the mileage you ought to be getting out of all those “fresh approaches” you’re testing.
Taking this into account, check out the tweaked PPC ad below:

Only two words distinguish the winning ad from the losing ad:

1. “Enhance” vs. “Improve,”
2. “Fun” vs. “Scientific”

What impact do you think these minor tweaks had on improving the ad’s CTR? Five percent? Ten percent?
No, the winning ad improved CTR by whopping 30 percent because the difference between “enhance” and “improve” isn’t just a slight tweak between synonyms. After all, advertisers sell male enhancement products, not male improvement products, right? “Enhance” doesn’t imply the need for improvement, but “Improve” does.
And when you’re looking to play Brain Training Games, “Fun” is more promising than “Scientific.” Yes, you want the games to be scientifically proven, but that’s not the same thing as “Scientific” is it?
So take a tip and this week, don’t diss the tweak! Always make sure you’re cycling in both fresh rewrites and tweaks for your PPC ads to make sure they reach their optimal performance
By: Noran El-Shinnawy

5 Filters Everybody Should Use In Their AdWords

It's the dream. To be able to log into AdWords and instantly find the changes you need to make. Well that's the trick that long-time paid search managers have been using to allow them to keep an eye on so much material so easily.
If you save the filters below in your own accounts (at keyword level) I guarantee you'll save time and always know what needs attention in your PPC campaigns.

Filter 1: Great But Expensive

How to set it up:
Spend > $X
CPA > $Y
Avg Position better than Z
Sorting: Conversions from high to low
What it's for: This filter will identify the keywords in your account that contribute most to your total conversions, but are costing you more than you can really afford per conversion. The keywords caught by this filter are high enough up the page that you have scope to reduce the CPA by lowering your positions/bids.
Tips: Set the CPA limit to a tolerance just a little higher than your target. You want this filter to identify keywords whose cost is above what is profitable for you. Set the average position to a slot above your average, where there is plenty of scope for keywords in those positions to be moved down and still attract reasonable traffic.
Actions: Reduce bids. Any keywords showing up in this filter are important to your account, but too expensive at the moment. They are high enough up the page that you can reduce the bids without demolishing traffic volumes.

Filter 2: Good, But Not Much Scope

How to set it up:
Spend > $X
CPA > $Y
Avg Position worse than Z
Sorting: Spend from high to low
What it's for: This filter will find the keywords in your account that are too expensive but don't have much scope to be reduced further. Decreases in bids here will likely move these keywords off the first page more and more often, reducing impression share down very low. These keywords will be expensive no matter what position they are in.
Tips: You can set up this filter with a position tolerance at the edge of the banner (usually top three positions) or down at the edge of the first page (usually nine or 10). In our experience the positions on a side are fairly similar in terms of performance. CTR won't vary significantly, but impression share will drop off as you move lower.
Actions: Reduce bids, but don't be afraid to pause. Sometimes the keywords in this filter simply won't work. If any keyword shows up in this filter for period after period you'll probably find that even when it shows mostly off the first page it still won't start converting well for you.

Filter 3: Doomed

How to set it up:
Spend > $X
Conversions = 0
Sorting: Spend from high to low
What it's for: Finding keywords that simply don't work.
Tips: Check your timelines. Just because a keyword didn't work in this period doesn't mean it never did. It could have been through a blip. Always check keywords in this bracket across multiple timelines.
Actions: Bearing in mind the disclaimer above about timelines, you can usually safely pause these keywords. These are spending your money and showing you nothing in return. If your business takes a large proportion of leads over the phone then don't necessarily be so hasty. Consider phone-tracking methods if you're in this situation.

Filter 4: Gold

How to set it up:
Spend > $X
CPA < $Y
Avg Position worse than Z
Sorting: Conversions from high to low
What it's for: These keywords are make or break for your campaign. These are the keywords that have good traffic volumes, convert at below target CPA, and have scope to move up the page and get more daily impressions.
Tips: Set your average position pretty high on this one. The idea is to find keywords that can get more impressions if they're moved up the page. Almost anything not right at the top could potentially improve so be bold here.
Actions: Increase the bids. For as long as the keywords keep their low CPA, keep pushing those bids up. You want as much traffic as you can get from these keywords.

Filter 5: Quality Score Duds

How to set it up:
Impressions > X
Quality Score < Y
CPA > $Z
Sorting: Impressions from high to low
What it's for: Identifying keywords that are having a negative impact on your overall campaign and account level quality scores. These keywords hurt the performance of all the other keywords in the campaign. But monetary performance has to come first.
Tips: Set your CPA limit such that only keywords that are not profitable for you are included. Any keywords with low quality scores but good CPAs should be kept, and you need to look at your ads to try to improve the quality score.
Actions: Pause these keywords. Run down the list, dealing with the highest impression volume keywords first. These are the terms that are having the biggest impact on your campaign. The more impressions you get with low quality scores, the more you're going to have to pay for everything else in the long run. If a particular keyword looks nicely relevant and targeted and looks like it should work, then give it a stay of execution for now. Work on your ad text and your landing pages to improve your CTR and relevancy.

Honorable Mentions

There are two pieces of information we'd love to be able to act on but currently can't.

1. Google-only CTR. When Google revamped the reporting interface they removed the ability to segment keyword data by network, so you cannot see the effect that the search partners are having on your stats. You would definitely want to be able to see your keywords that have low CTRs but search partner activity can mask the true nature. There are two main ways around this:
    
• Segment by Top vs Side. This new segment will let you see that data separately, but it's not ideal for our purposes (screenshot above).
   
• Use the API. The data is still available (for now) in the API for those of you who really want to see it. This isn't the most straightforward thing to set up for most campaign managers though. If you have API access then I suggest you take a look at this data. If you don't, then just use the method above.
   
2. Impression share per keyword. Google give us impression share data at campaign level, but not at keyword level. The ability to see how much additional traffic each individual keyword missed out on due to its rank on the page would be of great benefit. The filters above use average position as an analogue to impression share, to get an idea how much more traffic would have been available if we'd been more aggressive. If we really knew how much we'd missed we'd be able to make a better estimate of the scope still available to us.

Using Filters

The filters in this article are the types of filters used by experienced campaign managers to quickly get to the source of potential problems in your account and make rapid improvements to your performance. There are many others you can use to identify items of key importance to your own specific account.
One example of this would be a filter to show all keywords that contain a specific word or phrase that is particularly important to you, and where average position is below X. This type of filter would help you to see keywords of particular relevance that should be getting as much traffic as possible but aren't.
By: Alistair Dent,